Re: experiences in starting with KEEL...

Ralf,

Thanks for taking the time out for feedback, most appreciated!

> another hints from my experience in starting with keel:
> - the version one can download at sourceforge is not in
> sync with handbook. even the first "ant" for creating a new project
> isn't working. would be good if a new snapshot would be upload...
> 

Keel-2.0 is not compatible with the handbook, 2.1-dev is.  Steve D. is working
on providing us daily snapshots of CVS, so this problem will be alleviated soon.

> - the version from CVS (22.09.) could not download tomcat 5.0.27 
> because its no longer present, keel-build/ant.properties must be 
> corrected to version 5.0.28, then everything works fine:
> 
> tomcat.install=true
> tomcat.version=5.0.28
> tomcat.name=jakarta-tomcat-${tomcat.version}
> tomcat.path=${tool.deploy.dir}/${tomcat.name}
> tomcat.dlsrc=http://apache.mirrors.pair.com/jakarta/tomcat-
> 5/v${tomcat.version}/bin/jakarta-tomcat-${tomcat.version}.zip
> 

I had found this yesterday and fixed it already.  You should be able to see in
CVS today already.

> - handbook suggestions:
> -- would love to have a chapter describing howto set up keel
> with preinstalled userbased tomcat (using CATALINA_BASE)
> (I develop with central tomcat under /opt/tomcat5 and a user
> based configuration under CATALINA_BASE, so that I can use userbased 
> Eclipse with tomcat-plugin. would like to have one central keel with 
> every developer using his own tomcat and keel_proj... it's not 
> comfortabel under linux to develop in usermode and having to switch 
> to root-mode to deploy ant start tomcat...)

This is how it is meant to work.  We define a tomcat.path (as you have already
noticed) in $KEEL_HOME/ant.properties.  Each user can setup a project dir and
define a different tomcat.path in $KEEL_PROJ/ant.properties.  So, each user
has own $KEEL_PROJ directory with custom ant.properties.  Each user's
user-modules.xml can still point to shared modules either in $KEEL_HOME/* or
somewhere else.  Would this work?  Also, note that we don't actually deploy a
war anywhere during development, we modify Tomcat's configuration to point to
$KEEL_PROJ/webapp.  If you are deploying a debuuged webapp to your production
Tomcat, only then do you have to do a "ant war" and copy the WAR out manually.
Let me know if I didn;t understand your problem correctly.

> 
> -- hint for handbook: 
> ant tomcat-start eventually starts the wrong tomcat if there is
> a CATALINA_HOME environment variable pointing to another (before 
> keel used) tomcat, had to wipe it out, so that deployed hoj-
> application under "deploy"-tomcat could be accessed
> 
So, we need to set CATALINA_HOME in our ant script, maybe?  That way we will
not be affected by external settings.  Good idea!  If you don't mind, please
write a tracker item on SF, and I will add this in.

> -- is it possible to use a previous installed userbased tomcat 
> (CATALINA_BASE), not residing under "deploy"-dir?
> 

Yes...simply define tomcat.path in your $KEEL_PROJ/ant.properties.

> -- handbook-typo:
> chapter 1.5.1.1:
> ...Create the package org.javamug.hoj.models
> must be
> ...Create the package org.javamug.apphoj.models
> 
I will get this fixed.  Thanks.

Shash